Naples' pizza twirling joined UNESCO's growing list of "intangible heritage" Thursday, securing the coveted status alongside a host of cultural treasures including a Saudi art form traditionally practiced only by women.
Image: Reuters/C. de luca
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'Intangible Heritage': From pizzas to windmills and traditional horse games
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee is to decide what cultural treasures should be added to its List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity -— a celebration of human diversity. DW presents some of the nominations.
Image: Fotolia/samott
Naples pizza twirling
The fine art of Neapolitan pizza bakers is a popular inclusion in the UNESCO "intangible heritage" list. Here, famed Neapolitan pizza chef Gino Sorbillo shows off some authentic local cultural treasures which, according to the Neapolitan Pizza Association rule book, must be cooked in a wood fire oven at 485 degrees Celsius.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Abbate
German organ-building and music
Germany has long been a center of organ construction, and many of the world's finest examples of the instrument can be found there, like this one by Friedrich Stellwagen in Stralsund. The group of some 2,800 organ builders who made the nomination say an estimated 1 million people hear organ music on some Sundays during church services. But organs can be a visual treat as well.
Basel residents call the Carnival celebrations in the Swiss city "the three happiest days." The festival is a major tourist attraction, drawing visitors from Germany, France and Luxembourg, as well as from further abroad. Some 1,000 Carnival associations take part.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Seeger
Alasita: Luck in miniature form
Alasita is a traditional festival in La Paz, Bolivia, where participants buy or are given miniature versions of the things they would like to obtain during the year. The goods are then blessed by shamans to bring the owners good luck. The month-long event combines ancient ritual, elements of Catholicism — and plain consumer avarice.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Stringer
Kumbh Mela: Washing away lifetimes of sins
The Indian festival of Kumbh Mela, or "Pitcher Festival," is the largest religious gathering in the world. Pilgrims come to wash away all their sins in sacred rivers at various locations in India — here, at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers in Allahabad. The festival is held only once every 12 years at any given place.
Image: REUTERS
Kok Boru: A fierce equestrian sport
Kok Boru has long been played in Kyrgyzstan, and the country has its own special set of rules differentiating its version from similar games played in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and other countries. The aim is to deposit the stuffed carcass of a goat in a well to score points. For players to pick up the carcass from the ground while they are mounted, great horseriding skills are needed.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/V. Oseledko
A gentler tradition in the Netherlands
Windmills may seem rather too solid to be on a list of "intangible" heritage." But, in fact, it is the art of operating the some 1,200 Dutch windmills and watermills that has been nominated. Some are still operating commercially, but the tradition is being preserved mostly by volunteers.
Image: Fotolia/samott
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Naples' pizza twirling joined UNESCO's list of "intangible heritage" Thursday, securing the coveted status alongside a host of cultural treasures including a Saudi art form traditionally practiced only by women.
The art of 'pizzaiuolo' — which has been handed down for generations in the southern Italian city of Naples — was given the nod by the UN cultural body's World Heritage Committee, who met on the South Korean island of Jeju.
Naples pizza takes the prize
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It comes after some two million people joined a petition to support Naples' application, according to Sergio Miccu, head of the Association of Neapolitan Pizzaiuoli — no doubt buoyed by his offer of complimentary pizza if the age-old culinary tradition joined the prestigious list.
"We'll be giving out free pizza in the streets," Miccu earlier told AFP.
The custom goes far beyond the pizzaiuolo's spectacular handling of the dough — hurling it into the air in order to "oxygenate" it — to include songs and stories that have turned pizza-making into a time-honoured social ritual.
It is said that the Margherita pizza was created in 1889 by a local Neapolitan chef in honor of Queen Margherita, who was visiting the city — it has the red, white and green colors of the Italian flag.
Pizza Margherita was created in the colors of the Italian flag Image: Picture-alliance/Pacific Press/M. Consiglia Izzo
Also on the UNESCO list is the Saudi Arabian art of Al-Qatt Al-Asin — elaborate interior wall paintings traditionally done by women and which promotes solidarity among females.
Other intangible heritage announced in Jeju includes Chogan, an Iranian horse-riding game accompanied by music and storytelling; the craft of millers operating windmills and watermills in the Netherlands; traditional boat making on the Indonesian island of South Sulawesi; and Nsima, a maize-based culinary tradition from the African country of Malawi.
Thirty-four candidates were seeking to join the intangible heritage list, which was created in 2003 to mainly raise awareness.
Traditional windmill operators in the Netherlands were also honored by UNESCOImage: picture alliance/Bildagentur-online
UNESCO also sometimes offers financial or technical support to countries struggling to protect their traditions. Morocco will get help, therefore, to protect Taskiwin, a martial dance that developed in the western High Atlas mountain range and involves shaking one's shoulders to the rhythm of tambourines and flutes. UNESCO said globalization and young people's rejection of traditional heritage had driven the practice "closer to oblivion."
The list already included more than 350 traditions, art forms and practices from Spain's flamenco dancing to Indonesian batik fabrics, to more obscure entries such as a Turkish oil wrestling festival and the Mongolian coaxing ritual for camels.
